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The following citizen video posted by user syria7ra on YouTube, where it seems that a citizen journalist who was recording disturbances in Syria caught the moment of his death on film, has had both press and netizens wondering about the authenticity of the images.

The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom covered the story describing the video and the details they have been able to pick up, such as the video originating from the city of Homs; the narrator for the video begins by describing how on July 1, 2011, someone was shooting at citizens in the area of Karm al-Sham even though there were no demonstrations or apparent reasons for doing so. However the newspaper clarifies that the cameraman's identity is unknown and they have been unable to confirm either his identity or the authenticity of the video.

On the YouTube comments for the video, the same uncertainty is perceived:

I am not sure if it's real or fake, but there are surely few questions. For example who was the citizen? What was his name? When and where dit it happen?

I mean, the video from his mobile phone haven't uploaded to YouTube by itself. Someone had to take his phone, transfer the﻿ video to PC and upload it to YouTube. And in this case there must be some details about the dead person, time, location and so on. Blurry video without any context is simply not enough.

Translation: He initially says: “Security forces are firing﻿ at people in the Karm al-Shami neighborhood [this is in the central Syrian city of Homs], for no reason, not even a demonstration, today, July 1, 2011.” After being shot, a friend seems to have approached him and realized that, and asks: “you were shot in the head? Oh God! Oh God!”. He then, hardly intelligibly, keeps saying “quickly, quickly,” perhaps while pointing at something. His friend lastly says: “You want me to film?”

This is terrible! Although I do not agree with comments about this being faked, the guy filming this video was too nervous and distracted to notice the shooter aiming at him 2.5 seconds﻿ before shooting, the first time I saw this video I noticed the son of a bitch taking aim towards the camera. I'll have to agree with comments saying that probably you would freeze when aimed at by a gunner, but I still think that the lack of reaction (duck!) was due to nervousness/distraction due to all the fuss.

FAKE ! i do not see any flash from﻿ the gun and the camera is hidden , in reality the camera would fall etc… this is another fake to make more turmoil.

And bs9rwbbreacts with confusion as to what can be done to help by those outside the conflict:

it's sad, the international community should really do something﻿ about Syria, but it's hard to say what. Some of the comments here are pretty feckless, that man was trying to do something honorable in his life and he paid the ultimate price. He was braver than most of you.

i believe it’s faked . the guy who uploaded must be someone in the same house or building of the guy who was hit to take his device.. logic says that he would have taken a photo of the guy after being shot too. , why didn’t he?

After hundreds of fake news that I saw about Syria within the last 4 months, I can tell that this is fake one. I remember myself the first 3 weeks of the uprising, I used to be moved and touched by any video of those, to figure later on that it was fake, or it happened in Iraq or Lebanon or Bahrain or Yemen, or it happened in Syria couple of years ago for a complete different reason and story…
Of course, Syrian security forces are brutal, and yes they might have 50% of responsibility of all the bloodshed. But, try to find who is “playing” with them on the ground and on media; and who is making hundreds of fake news, and publishing one true video with 9 fake ones… Who is shooting both the police & the people, but blaming the police for every drop of blood…
Does anyone knows that more than 600 policemen & soldier had been killed up till now? and more than 1500 policemen & soldier had been injured ? Yet, all what we saw in the news is black & white: satans on the government side, and angels at the “peaceful” demonstrations’ side.

Robby

Since the Syrian government controls the most of the media why haven’t they filled the media with videos of military using non-lethal methods (water cannons, tear gas, etc)?